<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.1//EN"
 "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml11/DTD/xhtml11.dtd">
<html xml:lang="en" xmlns:epub="http://www.idpf.org/2007/ops" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" lang="en">
<head>
  <title>Chapter 10</title>
  <link rel="stylesheet"
        type="text/css"
        href="css/style.css" />
  <link rel="stylesheet"
        type="text/css"
        href="css/media.css" />
</head>
<body class="content layout-paginated">
  <div id="chapter-10" class="element element-bodymatter element-container-single element-type-chapter element-with-heading">
    <div class="heading heading-with-title heading-with-image" id="chapter-10-heading">
      <div class="heading-contents">
        <div class="title-subtitle-block title-block-title-is-element-number">
          <div class="element-number-block">
          </div>
          <div class="title-block">
            <h1 class="title">Chapter 10</h1>
          </div>
          <h2 class="subtitle">Belah</h2>
        </div>
        <div class="heading-image-block heading-image-aspect-square heading-image-block-after-title-and-subtitle">
          <div class="heading-image-size-container heading-image-width-250">
            <img src="images/opheliabellsolodragon.jpg"
                 alt=""
                 class="heading-image-image" />
          </div>
        </div>
      </div>
    </div>
    <div class="text" id="chapter-10-text">
      <p class="first first-in-chapter first-full-width"><span class="first-letter first-letter-i">“I</span> hope you like the wind,” Lukas said with a grin as he led Belah through a dimly lit corridor to a doorway in the back of the club. Outside, he made a fancy show of handing her an object she had no idea what to make of.</p>
      <p class="subsq">He turned away while she studied the smooth, shining helmet. It was unlike any battle gear she’d ever seen, with its round shape and soft cloth on the inside, but hard and sturdy like a shiny black egg on the outside. The magic from his music still thrummed in her mind, and she smiled at him giddily while he secured the black case that held his instrument onto the back of his steed.</p>
      <p class="subsq">“You ever ride before?” he asked, shoving a helmet onto his head and securing the strap under his chin. “Put it on, baby. Don’t want your pretty head messed up if we take a spill on the way home. I promise I won’t—the wind will carry us—but it’s against the law not to wear one.”</p>
      <p class="subsq">“All right,” she said, shaking her head at her own sense of being swept away. <i>Oh, Mother, I don’t ever remember it being like this. Even with …</i> She didn’t finish the thought, refusing to sully the evening with memories of her past mistakes.</p>
      <p class="subsq">Lukas came toward her, shrugging out of his leather jacket. “Put this on,” he said. “It’ll keep you warm.”</p>
      <p class="subsq">Cool air wouldn’t be an issue for her, but she agreed with a nod, turning to let him slip the jacket over her shoulders. It dwarfed her slender frame, but smelled like clouds and rain and sky. She took a deep breath, reveling in the scent of him that surrounded her now, so utterly different from the dark, dangerous aroma of her old lover.</p>
      <p class="subsq">He eyed her long dress as she was about to climb on. “That might be a problem. Can you do something about it?”</p>
      <p class="subsq">The dress itself was conjured—everything Belah wore was, aside from the jacket he’d just given her. She nodded and gathered the skirt up, baring her long legs to him, and wrapped the length around her hips, tucking the fabric into itself like a sarong.</p>
      <p class="subsq">“Will this do?” she asked. Impulsively, she also kicked off her shoes and picked them up.</p>
      <p class="subsq">Lukas gave her an odd look, but nodded. “Climb on behind me and hold on tight.”</p>
      <p class="subsq">He wasn’t kidding about the wind, either. The name for his machine finally came to her just as she wrapped her arms around his waist and the engine came to life beneath them.</p>
      <p class="subsq"><i>Motorcycle</i>, she thought. <i>It’s like a car, but better because it’s between your legs and makes you feel like you’re flying.</i></p>
      <p class="subsq">The thought made her grin like an idiot, but it was true. She found it tricky not to stretch her wings as he sped down the streets of the city with her clinging to him. The need to fly made her shoulder blades itch, but suppressing it caused her need for magic to swell to bursting inside her. Once they reached their destination, she hoped he wouldn’t waste time making love to her. To combat the urge, she clung tighter to him, letting her hands press against his belly, her face against the taut strength of his wide shoulders.</p>
      <p class="subsq">The sheer, vibrant life of him thrilled her. He was the first man in more than three thousand years whose contact made her insides melt with anticipation. During that ride, Belah nearly cried at how beautiful those sensations were, the warmth of his abdomen sinking into her palms where she pressed against him. She longed to touch him more, but knew it was better to wait.</p>
      <p class="subsq">She avoided reading his emotions, aside from the few bits that made her core grow warm. He wanted her. Of course he did, or else he wouldn’t have extended his invitation. She wondered if those words he’d whispered from across the room at the club meant what she hoped they did. His reaction to her was certainly more optimistic than Ozzie’s had been at dinner—not to mention after he had learned her secret.</p>
      <p class="subsq">She squeezed her arms tighter around Lukas and inhaled his scent, her heartbeat syncing with his in a way that made the confusion of her meeting with Nikhil fade away. Everything about Lukas felt like a puzzle piece shifting into place—even though a piece still seemed like it was missing, what was here undoubtedly fit.</p>
      <p class="subsq">And she absolutely wanted him. Her hand strayed lower down his belly, her need urging her to touch him. His aura grew warmer the lower her fingers moved, and that smoky cloud she’d seen around him earlier puffed out of him and filtered around her like no other aura she’d ever witnessed. The scent of the wind at high altitudes pervaded her senses, making her feel even more like flying. He gripped her hand at a stoplight and pulled it lower, pressing it against his hard length beneath his leathers.</p>
      <p class="subsq">“You want this, baby? Take it easy on me for about ten more minutes and you’ll get it, all right?”</p>
      <p class="subsq">Ten minutes felt like ten million. But soon enough, Lukas pulled into a darkened street by a massive brick building. Belah heard nothing around them besides the lap of water nearby and turned to see the waters of a bay. He dismounted and lifted her into his arms, then set her barefoot on the ground. He walked to a huge door and lifted it. Inside was an almost empty room, brightly lit, with a shining gray floor like the garage on the bottom level of Erika and Geva’s building. There was nothing inside but a long, waist-high bench along one wall, and a collection of cabinets, neatly closed.</p>
      <p class="subsq">Lukas came back to stand before her, tugged at the clip of her helmet, and pulled it off. For a split second he looked like he might speak, but he startled her with his lips suddenly pressed against hers.</p>
      <p class="subsq">The depth of his need pervaded her senses. He’d been about to tell her to come inside, she knew that much. But he was hard to read, which lent an air of mystery to him that only made her want him more.</p>
      <p class="subsq">She didn’t care much, though. He tasted good, and if a Prince of the North Wind were such an enigma, it only betrayed the strength of his magic. If she were his true mate, she would finally have a lover she could mark without worrying he would lose his will to her magic.</p>
      <p class="subsq">As he kissed her, Lukas pushed his jacket off her shoulders and let his hands roam down her arms. She loved how decisive he was. How much he seemed to know precisely what he wanted and what might please her. Her old craving for surrender swelled within her and she let it come, knowing that with this man there was no hidden darkness threatening to take over. She leaned into him, threading her fingers through his hair and letting him devour her.</p>
      <p class="subsq">With a low growl, he pulled away. “Fuck, Belah. Can I take my bike in before you destroy me entirely?”</p>
      <p class="subsq">“Yes,” she whispered, reluctantly releasing him. She let the hem of her dress cascade back to her ankles and followed him inside, dazed by the kiss and wondering how the hell her kind hadn’t been secretly mating turul for centuries already.</p>
      <p class="subsq">She leaned against the tool-covered bench and enjoyed his steady, comfortable movements as he closed the garage door and worked on his bike for a few moments. He removed the case with his instrument first and set it beside her, kissing her again slowly before grabbing a cloth and walking back to the bike to wipe it down.</p>
      <p class="subsq">“She gets cranky if I don’t clean her up after a ride,” he explained.</p>
      <p class="subsq">Belah glanced down at the dark case he’d set beside her, resting her hand on it. “What about <i>her</i>? She did more work tonight, by my estimation.”</p>
      <p class="subsq">Lukas grinned. “You’re right, but she gets to sleep in a velvet bed, and she understands I have other priorities tonight. This lady …” He gestured to the bike. “She’s more temperamental.”</p>
      <p class="subsq">“Do you love all your women so well?” Belah asked, enthralled by this man who so perfectly embodied her ideal.</p>
      <p class="subsq">“No,” he said, wiping down the shining silver pipes of his machine.</p>
      <p class="subsq">Blinking at him, she nearly asked why until he looked at her, his storm-gray eyes intense enough to burn through her soul.</p>
      <p class="subsq">“The ones who almost make me too shaky to finish a gig get extra attention.” His movements slowed, his hand pausing on the seat of the bike, regarding her with parted lips. His gaze raked over her. “Fuck it, the bike can wait.”</p>
      <p class="subsq">Suddenly he was before her, tearing his dirty shirt off over his head and flinging it into a corner. He lifted Belah up, set her on the rough wooden bench, and crushed her lips with his in a fast, hungry kiss that left her breathless.</p>
      <p class="subsq">He tore himself away with a gasp, as though trying not to drown. They gazed into each other’s eyes, Lukas’s heaving chest making it apparent to her that she had the same effect on him. It had been so long since a man had affected her this way, with every action more surprising and wonderful than the last, and all of it before they’d made love even once. He fascinated her in a way that was tough to articulate. And never had a man filled her with such hopeful anticipation.</p>
      <p class="subsq">As though sensing she wanted to speak, his eyebrows rose in inquiry. With one broad thumb, he traced the curve of her lower lip, a silent enticement to let her words come free.</p>
      <p class="subsq">“I like watching you,” she said with a slight shrug.</p>
      <p class="subsq">“Oh? Did you enjoy watching me as much as I enjoyed watching Erika take care of you earlier?”</p>
      <p class="subsq">She flushed in response to the slow smile that tugged at his lips, and her magic fluctuated dangerously, her skin shimmering into pale blue scales under the harsh lights of his garage.</p>
      <p class="subsq">“Maybe not quite so much. I’d like to see how you look in that moment—then perhaps we’ll be even.”</p>
      <p class="subsq">“<i>That moment</i>,” he repeated in a rough voice, so laden with desire it seemed to drip with it. “That moment might come quicker than you think, but I plan for us to have many more. Tell me how long it’s been for you so I know how much I ought to pace myself. I want to give you as many orgasms as you give me.”</p>
      <p class="subsq">He tugged her hips to the edge of the bench and pressed between her thighs, forcing her to wrap her legs around him. His erection throbbed hot and hard through their clothes, and she tilted her hips to rub against him.</p>
      <p class="subsq">“Too long,” she said against his lips.</p>
      <p class="subsq"><i>Please, let’s start now</i>.</p>
      <p class="subsq">She wasn’t quite sure whether it was his thought or hers, but she was in no mood to hesitate once it became clear that was exactly what he intended to do. His hands bracketed her jaw and his lips were on hers again, the nips and tugs speaking a language to her that she’d forgotten she knew fluently. She answered with her own urgent, hungry bites, grazing her teeth over his jaw and neck, just rough enough to cause a little pain, but not to break his skin.</p>
      <p class="subsq">He pulled back, grabbing her hands in his when she reached for him again, and she hated even the short distance he’d put between them. The determined expression in his eyes betrayed the hint of a plan.</p>
      <p class="subsq">“Hold still, right here,” he whispered, pressing her hands to the edge of the bench.</p>
      <p class="subsq">She nodded, thrilled by the command, and dug her fingers into the wood, determined to let him have control, even though the urge to touch him back was almost too strong to bear.</p>
      <p class="subsq">It gave her a moment to observe him in the light. She’d experienced Lukas’s contact just enough to know he was a well-built man, but seeing gave her a different perspective than touching. He had the solid build of a dragon, but without their massive stature. He was still large by human standards, however, with broad shoulders and the form of a man comfortable using his body frequently. The dusting of dark hair across his chest made her fingers tingle again with the urge to touch him. Her moment would come soon enough. For now, she would simply enjoy giving in to his whims.</p>
      <p class="subsq">She tilted her head into his hand when he lifted it to her cheek in a soft caress. Her eyelids fluttered closed as she imagined the sounds of his music filling her mind earlier, the rhythm matching her every breath.</p>
      <p class="subsq">“Look at me,” he said. “I want your baby blues to see what you do to me.”</p>
      <p class="subsq">She did, opening her eyes to meet his gaze, so filled with need it made her core ache to have him, but waiting was part of the pleasure. Something deeper lingered in his eyes, too, and she tentatively reached out with her mind, hoping it might be the spark of something truly beautiful; a reflection of what had lit inside her when she’d first heard his music in person earlier that night. Hoping it meant that he saw her as more than a fleeting tryst and that his instincts were driving him toward her because she was his true mate.</p>
      <p class="subsq">His caress moved down her neck, fingers teasing at her throat. He bent and pressed hot, silky lips against her collarbone and trailed them further south, the path preceded by his fingertips tugging at the strap of her dress, pushing her bodice down until one breast was bared to him.</p>
      <p class="subsq">Belah tilted her head back with a moan when he wrapped his lips around her nipple. One hand strayed to his head to hold him there, but he chuckled and clutched it, putting it back down beside her thigh on the bench.</p>
      <p class="subsq">“You make me so hungry for you, baby. Watching you come to the sound of my music tonight was the best introduction I’ve ever had to a woman. Now you get to sit back and watch me play your body like an instrument, and I get to hear the music you make.”</p>
      <p class="subsq">He moved his mouth to her other breast, the straps of her dress falling down to her elbows. One of his hands slid under her dress, pushing the velvet fabric higher until his fingertips reached the thin lace where her panties crossed her hip.</p>
      <p class="subsq">She let out a sharp gasp when he twisted the delicate fabric in his fingers and tugged hard. The cloth stretched and snapped.</p>
      <p class="subsq">“That’s right, let me hear you,” he said, glancing down at her exposed skin, her creamy breasts rising and falling, nipples hard and tingling, aching for his mouth again.</p>
      <p class="subsq">He tugged the remnant of her panties from under her and let them dangle from his fingers for a second before draping them over a small hook on the wall behind her. She didn’t have the heart to tell him they’d fade away after she left him, but perhaps she’d never leave.</p>
      <p class="subsq">Then he was on his knees, his face a breath from the slick, sensitive skin between her open thighs.</p>
      <p class="subsq">All he did was blow, the soft breath gusting against her folds in a cool caress. Despite the fact that it was only air, it did something to her. The sharpest pleasure she’d ever experienced began with that sensation against her most sensitive flesh. It was subtle at first, but grew exponentially when his fingers parted her and he blew again, a targeted breath aimed right at her clit.</p>
      <p class="subsq">She moaned and tilted her hips toward him, wishing for more. And he repeated the process, moving his head in a slow circle, the current teasing her in a spiral, closer and tighter until his lips were against her, sucking gently.</p>
      <p class="subsq">The shuddering moan that escaped her then resonated through the room, deep and filled with primal hunger.</p>
      <p class="subsq">He didn’t seem in a hurry to stop, taking his time with his tongue and lips teasing her and urging her to vocalize her pleasure.</p>
      <p class="subsq">“That’s right, baby,” he murmured. “Tell me how it feels with my tongue deep in your pussy. Tell me what you like.”</p>
      <p class="subsq">“I want your hands on me, too,” she managed to stutter out, and he immediately complied, reaching up and clutching both her breasts.</p>
      <p class="subsq">He pinched her nipples, making her gasp at the thrill the pain sent through her. As if understanding exactly how much pleasure it gave her, he did it again. When she let out a fresh moan, Lukas slowed the pace of his tongue on her clit and looked up at her.</p>
      <p class="subsq">“Like that?” he asked. He rose in front of her, his eyes wide and excited at the discovery, as though she’d revealed the best kind of secret. “How ‘bout this?” He bent and took one taut, pink tip gently between his teeth, then bearing down little by little until the pain grew to a bright, hot point that made her cry out and clutch at his head.</p>
      <p class="subsq">“Oh! Lukas, no. I can’t …” Sweet Mother, did she need more, but the craving for surrender was already frighteningly close to her ancient addiction to oblivion. The pain might send her spiraling into a dangerous pit she wasn’t sure she was equipped to pull herself out of again.</p>
      <p class="subsq">“Baby, I may not be able to see your aura the way you can see mine, but the Wind tells me all your secrets if I want it to. It’s nothing to be afraid of if you like a little pain. I just want to make you feel good, that’s all.”</p>
      <p class="subsq">Unable to help herself, she let out a breath of magic that filtered into his lungs and deep inside his mind. Instantaneously, she saw the raw truth of his words. All he cared about was her pleasure—he had no agenda of his own—no darker need for pain and destruction—just the desire to make her happy. Belah shuddered and arched her breasts up for him to take, clutching at his head to pull him back down.</p>
      <p class="subsq">“That’s a good girl. But remember—no hands yet,” he said, and she immediately slapped her hands back down against the bench.</p>
      <p class="subsq">Lukas stood up straight again, eyes never leaving hers as he unfastened his pants and released his erection. “I need to be inside you when I make you come,” he said, and Belah only nodded, beyond ready to have him.</p>
      <p class="subsq">His thick length parted her slick folds and he sank deep. The first stroke only managed to make her aching core crave more, and the renewed spark of pain his teeth inspired in her breast only made that need crescendo. He pulled his hips back and thrust deep with a swift, violent surge, biting her harder at the same time.</p>
      <p class="subsq">Belah struggled not to reach out and cling to him, instead crying out her affirmation. “Yes! Ohh, yes, don’t stop!”</p>
      <p class="subsq">The blue velvet of her dress slipped down, tangling around her thigh. Lukas cursed and gripped it hard in his fingers, ripping the front of it with a fierce pull that rent the fabric like gauze. The velvet parted and fell away around her hips, leaving her naked.</p>
      <p class="subsq">“Sorry,” he muttered with a slight grimace, but thankfully, he did not cease his steady fucking.</p>
      <p class="subsq">Belah clung to him, needing Lukas close against her now that she was fully naked. The dress was the last thing she cared about.</p>
      <p class="subsq">“Oh, Belah,” he moaned, pulling back to look down at her again. “You’re the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen. I can’t … can’t hold back, baby.”</p>
      <p class="subsq">“Don’t!” she gasped, digging her nails into his shoulders and pulling him back down into a desperate kiss. His steady thrusting hit her at the precise angle to set her entire body aflame with ecstasy. She closed her eyes then and opened up her senses to feel him fully. All his thoughts and emotions became clear as day to her, wrapped up in the beautiful, puffy cloud of his aura. But when she opened her eyes and saw the reverence in his gaze, she knew without a doubt that he believed she was more than just a quick lay.</p>
      <p class="subsq">The awareness made her clutch him tighter. She cried out his name, letting her true voice out, the roar vibrating the room as his power rushed into her with his climax.</p>
      <p class="subsq">The power of the Wind surging through them both was too strong for her to resist, too strong to deny the pull of her true form seeking its own release. She suppressed most of it, but her wings refused to stay hidden and came forth with a loud snap and quivering stretch when she came.</p>
      <p class="subsq">Lukas’s own harsh cry sang out, and she opened her eyes just in time to see a pair of huge, feathered wings erupt from his back, shimmering with variegated gold and russet tones.</p>
      <p class="subsq">He grinned at her, panting and breathless. “Beautiful Blue Belah,” he said. “Your wings are amazing.”</p>
      <p class="subsq">“So are yours.” She stared, wide-eyed, at the wings that almost perfectly matched the feathered version from her dreams. Then she laughed out loud at the understanding, shaking her head at her idiocy.</p>
      <p class="subsq">“What is it?” he asked, one eyebrow twitching as he looked down at her, perplexed by her reaction.</p>
      <p class="subsq">“I never knew how wonderful making love to a Prince of the North Wind could be.”</p>
      <p class="subsq">She reached up a hand to his rough cheek, caressing him in wonder. Fate was having fun with her tonight, teasing her with one of Zephyrus’s line, only to finally send her a child of Boreas who couldn’t stop looking at her like he’d discovered heaven.</p>
      <p class="subsq">Lukas cringed. “No prince here. Those days are long past.” He shook his head, his wings folding back in and fading into nothingness again as he separated himself from her.</p>
      <p class="subsq">“I’ve been out of touch for a while,” she said.</p>
      <p class="subsq">“Ah, right … the Ascension was recent, wasn’t it? We don’t always get a memo, you know. It would be nice if you guys let the other high races know when you’re waking up. Five hundred years is an awfully long nap. We tend to forget.” He kissed her as though he were welcoming her home for the first time, even though she’d never been in hibernation. She had been as good as hibernating, however, and for a lot longer than five hundred years.</p>
      <p class="subsq">With a swift tug, he pulled her off the bench and lifted her up, cradling her in his arms and carrying her across the room.</p>
      <p class="subsq">“Where are we going?” she asked, disconcerted by the elation in his eyes. His smile infected her with mirth and she laughed out loud, his recent words nearly forgotten.</p>
      <p class="subsq">“I’m carrying you across my threshold. Because you are my <i>One,</i> and I’m never letting you go.”</p>
      <p class="subsq">“Oh?” she asked, delighted at his confidence. “And how are you going to keep me?”</p>
      <p class="subsq">“By making you so happy you forget there’s a world out there that dragons have to fear. There are no Ultiori in my bedroom, and no laws but love, baby. And I’m going to love you forever.”</p>
      <p class="subsq">“You expect to bind me with words, then?” She gave him an amused look and he laughed, his face splitting into a wide grin. Belah was secretly thrilled with his pronouncement. A turul would never use the word “forever” lightly.</p>
      <p class="subsq">“I have other means to make you behave, trust me,” he said.</p>
      <p class="subsq">After a swift ascent up a dark, narrow staircase, Lukas brought her into a vast apartment that fascinated her with its modernity, just like everything else she’d seen since returning to the world. He didn’t give her a chance to enjoy the architecture of the interior before he carried her into a room that only featured the barest hint of walls. They didn’t even extend to the ceiling, which was lined with bars and pipes that extended to the brick walls on the sides. She made a mental note to ask Erika about it later. Then all thoughts left her mind as he laid her down on his bed and settled over her.</p>
      <p class="subsq">“So tell me what it’s like,” he said. “Ascending, I mean.”</p>
      <p class="subsq">“Oh. Ah …” Belah tried to come up with an adequate response, and probably could have if he hadn’t been busy with his mouth on her. His talented tongue was making slow, soft circuits over her sore nipples, and he kept blowing on them in between. She realized suddenly that the Wind was what had driven her so mad before. And now he was using it again to ease the soreness he’d caused. She sighed under his ministrations.</p>
      <p class="subsq">“No answer?” he asked between breaths.</p>
      <p class="subsq">“You just made me forget. Does it even matter?” she asked.</p>
      <p class="subsq">His dark brows drew together with his frown. “You’re the first dragon I’ve met from the new brood. It’s new to you, so I want to know what it was like. How you felt … how you were received …” He sighed and rolled away, sliding up beside her and propping himself on an elbow. “Fine, I need dirt, all right? I need to know what the fuck the Council is doing. I’ve only heard rumors that laws have changed, but no word on what the fuck those bastards are actually going to do about the shit they caused.”</p>
      <p class="subsq">Belah’s skin prickled in response to his vehement need to hear about what she and her siblings had done. Her body still craved his touch, but he was just lying there looking at her—expecting—what? A condemnation? Yet the look in his eyes told her he desperately needed to know something.</p>
      <p class="subsq">“Why do the turul care about three-thousand-year-old dragon laws?” she asked, wishing she was really as ignorant as she sounded. A new broodling wouldn’t know the first thing about the politics. She did know about the politics, but the turul were allies and had rarely expressed an interest in dragon law. That any of them would hold such animosity toward herself and her siblings—toward the laws they’d made to preserve their race or the reasons why they existed—was news to her.</p>
      <p class="subsq">“Most don’t.” His eyes darkened with emotion, and Belah couldn’t resist a look into his mind to find out why. He glanced away just as she was hit with a poignant combination of pain and loss, buried deep in anger for something that had happened very recently.</p>
      <p class="subsq">“Lukas,” she said softly, rolling over and reaching up to brush her fingers down his temple and urge him to face her again. “Who did you lose? Tell me what happened.”</p>
      <p class="subsq">He swallowed thickly and gazed back at her, his eyes glassy from emotion. “I forgot what a Blue could do—you can see right through me, can’t you?”</p>
      <p class="subsq">She nodded. “Only if you’re open enough, and I can tell you’re hurting now. Let me know why—maybe I can help. I’m good at other things besides reading you. I can ease the pain at least.”</p>
      <p class="subsq">Lukas shook his head. “It doesn’t matter what happened anymore because there’s not a damn thing I can do about it. She’s gone—my sister, Evie, is gone—taken and bled dry by those Ultiori bastards. I used to wish I could find the Council bitch who started it all. The Blue Beast, we call her. You know there are rumors among my people about how it all started? Do you even know what your leaders have covered up?”</p>
      <p class="subsq">A deep chill sank into Belah’s gut at his words. <i>The Council bitch who started it all.</i> She pressed tighter against his warm body, hoping that the closeness might obliterate her shame, but the squeeze of his arm around her torso only made it worse.</p>
      <p class="subsq">“I know they’re trying to fix it,” she said softly, though she feared it may be too little, too late if someone he loved had been lost already. And how many others had been lost in the intervening centuries? Too many. And no matter what she and her siblings or the Court did, they wouldn’t be able to undo those deaths.</p>
      <p class="subsq">Lukas turned onto his side with a heartbreaking sigh and pressed his face into her neck. “I’m just happy I found you,” he said. “Because believe me, I needed something good to happen. And baby, you’re even better than I imagined.”</p>
      <p class="subsq">“I’m nothing special,” she said.</p>
      <p class="subsq">“Oh, I disagree.” Lukas brushed his hand down her side and gripped her hip, kneading his fingers into her flesh in a way that set her alight again. He pressed her back against the mattress, moving to hover over her. “You’re perfect, Belah. I knew the second you came into the club tonight that you were for me.”</p>
      <p class="subsq">To illustrate his point, he grabbed both her hands and raised them up over her head, pinning them there. He rose onto his knees, straddling her torso. Something soft slipped around her wrists and she craned her neck back to see what he was doing. Her pulse quickened when the rope bindings he’d wrapped around her wrists grew snug as he tied them to the sturdy iron headboard of his bed.</p>
      <p class="subsq">“This turns you on, doesn’t it? Even more than me telling you not to touch me. And the little bit of pain I gave you—that drove you even wilder. I’ve never met a dragon like you before. Usually your kind are disappointingly assertive. How did you wind up so pliant? So fucking perfect?”</p>
      <p class="subsq">“Don’t …” she started, but didn’t finish when he regarded her with a raised eyebrow.</p>
      <p class="subsq">“Don’t what? Don’t pleasure you?”</p>
      <p class="subsq">She swallowed, unsure how to express her fears of going too far with him. She could easily break the flimsy bindings he had her in, but it felt too good to hover on that edge of giving up control, and once the ropes were tied, she didn’t think she’d <i>want</i> to break them.</p>
      <p class="subsq">“Do you take pleasure in it? In taking away my control … causing me pain?”</p>
      <p class="subsq">He sat back, regarding her quietly. “Not as such, no. There was a time when I needed it just to feel like I had some control over a life that was otherwise under Fate’s thumb. It was never about the pain unless my partner asked for it, though. Now it’s always about her pleasure, and my magic lets me know all the little secrets of a woman’s darkest fantasies. I think yours used to be darker than they are now, just like mine, but you’re scared of who you are, aren’t you? It’s nothing to be afraid of—that need for submission. And I’m not some kind of crazed sadist who gets off on hurting people. If you don’t like it, just say no.”</p>
      <p class="subsq">Lukas slipped away from her without waiting for a response, and a moment later returned with a lit candle. The flame flickered as he settled back over her, his thick muscles offset by the shadows cast from the candlelight. His magnificent erection rested hot against her belly when he straddled her hips again, holding the candle above her breasts.</p>
      <p class="subsq">She knew exactly what the candle meant, but more than that, the sweet sensation of his skin against hers was already enough to make her core ache with need again. To be so utterly at his mercy now, anticipating the things he was about to do to her, she couldn’t help but let out a soft moan even before the first drop of wax hit her chest.</p>
      <p class="subsq">He started slowly, tilting the candle and letting a small trickle of hot wax trail down between her breasts. He paused and waited, watching her intently.</p>
      <p class="subsq">“Yes or no?” he asked in a low voice.</p>
      <p class="subsq">Belah’s breathing quickened as the wax cooled and hardened on her chest. Wet heat pooled between her legs and her core ached anew for everything this man could give her. Did she dare go down this well-trodden path and risk falling off that cliff again? Oh, but he had said the perfect things. He promised pleasure and nothing more, and she so wanted what he was about to give her.</p>
      <p class="subsq">“Yes.”</p>
      <p class="subsq">“Remember, eyes open,” he said in a voice thick with desire. She was dimly aware of his hips shifting ever so slowly back and forth against her, his soft sac sliding against her mound and his cock leaving its own hot trail just beneath her navel.</p>
      <p class="subsq">She couldn’t stop watching him. Those deep gray eyes gazed down at her with such unrepentant emotion, obscured on one side by that errant lock of his straight, dark hair. His lips parted as though he were hungry to taste her skin, but he held off. The candlelight moved, and a searing drop of molten wax hit the tip of her breast, making her cry out with the pleasure of it. She pressed her thighs together and tilted her hips up against him, wishing like mad that he’d move his hips lower.</p>
      <p class="subsq">“Is this good?” he asked. “Or do you want more?”</p>
      <p class="subsq">She panted her answer. “More, please. Hotter.”</p>
      <p class="subsq">His eyebrows twitched. “Hotter, hmm? That’s right, you are more tolerant of extremes, aren’t you? I’ll have to see what I can do.”</p>
      <p class="subsq">With a soft breath from his pursed lips, the flame flickered and grew even brighter. The next drip of wax hit her other nipple and trailed down beneath her breast. The heat was even more exquisite, sinking into her sensitive skin, and sending a blazing rift straight between her thighs.</p>
      <p class="subsq">“Let me hear you, baby,” he murmured. “Tell me what you want.”</p>
      <p class="subsq">“Lukas,” she said, unable to bring any thought to mind but the syllables of his name, as focused as she was on the pleasure he gave her. “More, please. Don’t stop.”</p>
    </div>
  </div>
</body>
</html>
